Civil society groups on Wednesday accused the government of being "undemocratic" in its run-up towards deciding on the environmnetal safe guards, including identification of various no-go areas that are to be considered for coal mining.

The NGOs' statement comes a week before the group of ministers on coal mining policy is expected to deliver a draft on environmental regulations for the sector.

The civil society groups said the government is adopting a fast track approach in approving mining proposals and has absolutely no assessment of the loss of biodiversity and impact on livelihoods due to such operations.

“It is a mockery of democracy that a handful of ministers are deciding the fate of over 600,000 hectares (6,000 sq.km) of India’s forests, behind closed doors and without any public consultation,” said Ashish Fernandes of Greenpeace India in a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Despite the Forest Conservation Act, the Greenpeace said, since 1980 and 2009 1.2 million hectares of India’s forest land have been diverted for industrial use, and the rate of such diversion has been increasing. “Coal mining has huge environmental and social impacts and any decision on sacrificing forest areas for coal has to address these issues,” said Fernandes.

Greenpeace India also alleged that government is misleading people and Parliament by giving different figures on 'no go' and permitted/permissible areas.

From an initial high of 320,684 ha (out of 652,572 ha) the union environment ministry has now said that only 268,750 ha should be considered “No Go”. After pressure from prime minister office (PMO) and ministry of coal, 77 more blocks were then shifted to ‘go’ zones from ‘no go’, amounting to 35,000 hectares, Greenpeace India alleged.

“In the meeting at the PMO in July 2010, 77 blocks were shifted to the go zones,” Fernandes said.

“Jairam Ramesh, ministry of state for environment and forest (MoEF) gave different figures in parliament,” he added. Different notes obtained by the Greenpeace said how there has been misleading information on “No Go” areas:

•    No Go Areas- 222 Blocks- 3,20,684 Hectares (49% of total land area) - From RTI response in May 2010
•    No Go Areas- 186 Blocks- 2,58,050 Hectares (43% of total land area) – MoEF note in December 2010
•    No Go Areas- 105 Blocks- 1,40,311 Hectares (23.27% of total land area) – according to the revised parameters
•    No Go Areas- 153 Blocks- 2,68,750 Hectares (41.42% of total land area) – Ramesh’s response on 14th March in Parliament.

The civil society groups called for transparency in the matter. There is hardly any representation of other relevant ministries likes the ministry of tribal affairs, ministry of water resources in the GoM.

“There is a web of secrecy surrounding the machinations of the GoM. It’s very mandate is highly suspicious to say the least, and appears to be the first step to weaken India’s environmental safeguards,” said Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer from Lawyers initiative for Forests and Environment.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is the head of ministerial panel to sort out environmental issues hurting coal production. The panel was formed in the backdrop of ever widening demand-supply gap in coal which is likely to touch 142 million tonnes next fiscal and classification of 203 coal blocks by environment ministry as “no-go” zones.

“Government claims to care about protecting the rights of forest dwellers and yet has no hesitation in destroying the forest they depend on,” said R. Sreedhar of mines, minerals & people.